Vizio Co-Star is NO-GO.
Part of creating a product is providing proper customer support throughout its life-cycle. A product life-cycle begins with product envisioning, followed by definition, followed by create/build, followed by going to market (which on itself consists of different aspects including customer support).
Vizio has failed to deliver my product. And has failed to make *me* a satisfied customer — after waiting for almost a month for the delivery/return-process to work itself out, they could have sent me the package again, perhaps with rush delivery for all the troubles I have been through. But they claim they cannot do that (I don’t believe them); they should take a lesson from Zappo’s book. Instead they will refund me and I have to reorder. But I won’t reorder. Maybe their Co-Star is a kickass product, maybe it is not; the only way I am reviewing the Co-Star is if they send me one. In the meantime, I will continue using my Android tablet for Netflix streaming and apps on my TV. I will wait for a competing Android TV product, and maybe I will end up buying an Apple TV.
Read more on the comments section.
I will categorize this one under “#FAIL”.
I believe SmartTVs will open new/great opps for content/developers; and this will be especially true when intersecting this w/ Mobile.
So, to begin researching this in more detail, I’ve ordered Vizio’s Co-Star. Based on Google TV (click on the previous hyperlink to see the specs) it has everything needed to play/hack-away.
Crafted by VIZIO’s years of entertainment expertise, Co-Star packs the powerful features of Google TV into a sleek, intuitive interface. Combining live TV, the Web and apps into one experience, it allows you to search and access content from all of them without interrupting your viewing.
Of special interest to me is the combined experience across TV & apps that the Co-Star supports; think about it, your app overlaid on top of the video stream — if this plays out as I hope, this is very, very, very powerful, and is what I’ve been waiting for:
- Merges live TV, web, and apps into one interface
- Search across live TV, web and apps – simultaneously
- Picture-In-Picture – Apps & Live TV
Price: $99 — great price.
So stay tuned; I will report back…
ceo
I’m still waiting for my Co-Star; it has been close to 2 weeks since it was supposed to arrive.
The delivery of the product has been probably the worst I have experienced.
FedEx (via its SmartPost — or should I say, not that smart post) lost the package (they were the last one to scan/touch the package). The FedEx experience has been horrible. The only positive instance with FedEx was when I posted to Twitter, and a FedEx social relationship person contacted me — the power of social media. She tried to help but no luck.
https://twitter.com/eortiz/status/240144337218969601
So in short, FedEx’s not so-SmartPost is pretty much a disaster from what I can tell, and I am appalled by their service and attitude, meaning for future, I will think twice before using FedEx.
Vizio has been a bit better, once I got on the phone with them. Let’s see if they will take care of me next week.
Funny how that business work — I paid Vizio for the product, FedEx loses the package while in transit. FedEx don’t want to take responsibility. Vizio says it cannot refund me or deliver the package until FedEx (or USPS) comes back to them saying so. But FedEx says it has done all they can and that I must talk to the shipper (Vizio) to solve my issue. In the meantime, the customer (me) is in limbo with no refund and no package.
I really hope the Co-Star is worth every penny and minute I have spent on this — I have spent close to 5 hours back and forth on this issue & horrendous customer experience.
#FAIL
Vizio Co-Star is NO-GO; I changed the image on this blog to reflect such.
Vizo is not able to deliver the package to me — got lost in transit by FedEx not so SmartPost service.
Today (Sept 7, 2012), which is around 3 weeks since the day I was supposed to receive the package, I just spent like 30 minutes on the phone with Vizio. This time they asked me the *same* questions they asked me 2 weeks ago, things that were supposed to been addressed last week!
Their new timetable to get my refund (or product) is 6 weeks (until FedEx gets back to them).
Vizo, sound like nice guys, but are clueless from the customer support perspective. Same as FedEx. It is like a disease. They should send me a Co-Star for free for all my troubles, especially when I was one of the 1st batch of people putting an order.
Once I get my package, if I ever do, I will update this blog with my product review; in the meantime 1) stay away from FedEx “SmartPost”, and 2) think twice about ordering Vizio products online.
ceo